Hope
by Moonsway
Summary: Set after the episode Alone. I basically just wrote this because I want Beth to come out of this unharmed, and I'm worried that might not happen on the show. A group like this exists in the comic, so it's not completely made up.


Hope

Daryl would find her. Beth clung to that hope while she remained locked in the cellar of the house where her kidnappers had taken her. She didn't know how long she had been down here, because the windows were boarded up and didn't allow sunlight to penetrate the darkness. Her terror would have broken her if she'd been down here alone, but there were a few other people in here with her. Their names were Melissa, Jack, Carly, and Rachel. Jack and Carly were a couple, but the others hadn't known each other before they were kidnapped from the mortuary where Beth had also been taken. The place was a trap for unsuspecting survivors, contrary to her belief that it had been tended by good people.

The three men who kidnapped her were not good people, but she didn't know why they had taken her and the others. She had been sure that they were going to rape her and murder her, especially when the youngest one ran his hand up her thigh while she sat in the backseat between him and the one who was holding a gun on her. The other man had told him to keep his hands off her.

"Why can't I have some fun with her first?" He had complained, but he had removed his hand from her leg.

"You know the rules," the one holding the gun had told him. "We keep our distance. Nobody gets attached to them."

"I fucked lots of girls in high school," the young one bragged. "Never got attached."

"Enough!" The driver spoke sharply. "You have a wife to see to your needs. The rules keep us all safe."

They drove her to a farm. She could tell that much from what she saw as they forced her to walk from the car to the house. The driver turned on a flashlight once they entered, and he and the man with the gun took her down into the cellar. Beth got a glimpse of the other people before she was left in the darkness with them. The woman named Rachel guided her to the wall and explained that they had two buckets here for going to the bathroom. They had blankets to sleep on the floor. The next morning, or at least Beth assumed it was morning, the men returned with a woman bringing them fresh homemade bread and mugs of warm milk.

Both of the older men were pointing guns at the prisoners while the younger one held the flashlight. The one who had driven the car told Jack to come with them.

"Where are you taking him?" Carly asked anxiously.

"To take a bath," the woman answered.

Carly brightened at this news. "Can I have one too?"

"Later," one of the men answered. He pointed his gun at Jack. "Up the stairs."

The woman took one of the buckets with her while Jack left with their captors. Carly began to chatter about how she couldn't wait to have a bath, because she knew that she stank.

"That didn't stop them from doing it every night," Rachel whispered to Beth.

Beth had heard them going at it and had been glad that she couldn't see them. She couldn't imagine doing that in front of other people, and she also couldn't understand how they could be in the mood under these circumstances. They didn't have the chance to have sex that night, because Jack never returned. Carly asked their captors about him, and they told her that he was with them now.

"It must be some kind of cult," Melissa said. "They probably have some kind of ceremony to join them. Keeping us down here in the dark is part of their brainwashing technique."

Time had ceased to mean anything to Beth, so she didn't know how much longer it was before they came for Carly. She went willingly, because she was thrilled to get a bath and see Jack again.

"Just pretend to go along with them," Melissa said when the three of them were alone. "If they take me next, I'll sneak back and let you out when they're not looking."

"Deal," Rachel agreed. "I'll do the same if it's me."

Beth also told them that she would free them if she got the chance.

"Good, because we can't count on Jack and Carly. They're probably having sex right now," Rachel laughed.

Melissa was the next one taken out of the cellar, and they waited anxiously for her to return and let them out. They got excited when they heard the cellar door open, but it was only their captors bringing them more bread and milk. Beth knew that they must have a cow on the farm to provide milk. She wondered if they also had chickens, but bread was the only food they were given. They returned to gather the mugs and replace the bucket they regularly dumped out. Shortly after that, they heard gunshots.

Beth and Rachel cowered together in the cellar until they heard the door open and footsteps on the stairs. Two men they'd never seen before came down with guns drawn, and a third carried a flashlight.

"You're free ladies," one of them said. He gestured toward the stairs. "After you."

Beth stepped out into the light as she entered the kitchen behind Rachel. There was a pot of stew cooking on the wood burning stove. She noted that it smelled wonderful before she noticed the woman lying in a pool of blood on the floor.

"Don't worry. We made sure we got them all in the brain. They're not coming back," one of the men said as he came up out of the cellar behind them. "C'mon ladies."

Beth and Rachel followed them into the living room where there were more dead people. There were also more men with guns. Beth's eyes flitted over them and stopped on one in particular. She was opening her mouth to speak his name when two men grabbed her arms and held her firmly. Rachel screamed, and Beth saw that she was in the same situation.

"Fucking cannibals don't know what to do with a pretty little thing like you," the man who had called them ladies said. He turned to look behind him. "Aren't you gonna come get some?"

"Somebody's gotta stand guard while you boys fuck around," Daryl said.

"I'll take over after I finish. Then you can take a turn with her," the man offered.

"No thanks," Daryl replied. "I'll take the redhead with the big tits." He turned his attention to Rachel without even glancing toward Beth again.

The girl screamed as she was dragged toward the bedrooms. Beth was too shocked by Daryl's behavior to even react when the man pulled her pants down and ripped her panties right off her. Then there was more gunfire as the men who had been holding her collapsed on the floor. The other man had been in the process of unzipping his pants when he spun around just as Daryl gunned him down. Before Beth could move a muscle, he took off in the direction they had taken Rachel.

"What's happening?"

She heard one of the men yell the question before there were more gunshots. Beth was still standing there shell-shocked when Daryl burst back into the room. "Are you okay?"

She stared at him, uncomprehending. "Daryl?" Beth finally spoke. "Are you really here?"

"Oh, Beth." His voice sounded anguished as he suddenly hugged her. "I'm sorry. I tried so hard to find you."

"You did find me," she realized. "I knew you would."

"Beth?"

Daryl let go of her, and she looked at Rachel standing a few feet away and watching them warily. "It's okay. I know him."

"Oh…um…I'll wait outside for you to…" She trailed off and scurried out the door.

"Wait," Beth called after her, but she closed the door behind her. "We should take some supplies," she finished in a quieter voice.

Now Daryl looked just as uncomfortable as Rachel had. "You should, uh, pull up your pants."

It was only then that she realized they were down around her ankles, and that she was standing half naked in front of him. She was still partly in a daze as she pulled them up and zipped them closed. "Who were those men you were with?"

"Doesn't matter. Let's get those supplies and get out of here," he urged.

"There were some other people with us," she told him. "I need to check the rest of the house."

"We cleared the house," he explained. "There's nobody else here. We'll take some guns and ammo."

Beth was walking through the rooms and looking at the dead people. Melissa, Carly, and Jack weren't among them. "They probably escaped." She again noticed the stew cooking on the stove. "We should eat before we leave. I'll go get Rachel."

"We can't eat that," he declared.

She stopped to look at him. "Why not?"

Daryl motioned to the kitchen counter. "There's bread. Haven't had that in a long time." He began to search the cupboards with no luck.

"They have milk too. I'll go milk the cow. Did you see any chickens?" She hurried back to the front of the house and out the door. "We're gonna eat before we leave," she told Rachel.

Beth spotted the barn and headed toward it. "The cow must be in there."

Daryl got in her way. "I'll get the milk for you."

"You've never milked a cow in your life," she guessed and started to go around him, but he moved with her.

"Don't go in there." His voice rose as he continued to block her path.

Rachel appeared beside Beth. "Do you need help?" She eyed Daryl suspiciously.

"He's stubborn, but he's okay," she reassured Rachel. "He was just pretending to be one of those guys. He wasn't really gonna let them…" The realization of what had almost happened hit her like a freight train.

Beth's mind replayed the whole scene in vivid detail. "Cannibals," she whispered, repeating what the man who was going to be the first in line to rape her had said. The horrible confirmation was evident in Daryl's eyes.

She remembered him telling her that they couldn't eat the stew, and she suddenly knew that Melissa, Carly, and Jack hadn't escaped. Bile burned her throat as the contents of her stomach came up through it and she heaved on the ground.

None of them had any appetite after that, and they took only guns and ammo with them as they left that place of horrors.

**Notes:**

**I never planned to write another fanfic except for oneshots, but I have too many feels right now. My ships never happen, but this time I've been thrilled by the development of the relationship between Beth and Daryl. It's been better than I ever dreamed. I wasn't sure if it was meant to be friendship or something more until the last episode. The look Daryl gave Beth when she asked him why he changed his mind was definitely the look of a man falling in love. I don't know if it was written that way, but Norman sure played it that way. It was beyond anything I'd ever imagined, and then they ripped my heart out in the next minute.**

I honestly don't know if I'll be able to continue watching the show if something terrible happens to Beth. I can only handle so much tragedy in something that's supposed to be entertainment. I hope Beth somehow escapes unharmed. Anyway, I'm writing this as a way to cope with my worry. It's still dark like the show, but my people are okay in this version. I hope they will be on the show too.


End file.
